WARRIORS HIGH
ISLAND OF THE LOST
CHAPTER EIGHT
BARGAINS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
"You excited for your first day of school, Russ?"
"No!" he said, crossing his arms in an overdone pout.
Jaywhisker sent a pleading gaze to Dusty, who just shrugged, returning a look saying 'You brought this guy along, you figure out how to bond with him.'
The boy sighed. Despite how easily he wooed Russ into joining them, he had shut down, staying in his room for most of the day and only coming out for a small breakfast and dinner. It was almost as if he was practicing to be a moody teen.
Strange. He was expecting to be fending this little guy away from sticking his cute little nose into all of his "work," but all the interest he had in him was just gone. He felt disappointed like he lost a relationship he never truly put his mind to.
So here he was. Trying desperately to make a connection with the kid he yelled at Coalstrike to bring along.
"Why?" he asked Russ, "What's wrong?"
"School is stupid!"
"Why is school stupid?"
"Because it is!"
"Oh my God," he muttered, putting his head in his hands. There was no hope that those two would get along now, he was sure.
"Hey Russ," said Dusty, reaching into his pocket, "Do you know how to flip a coin?"
The boy raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Dusty pulled out a quarter and flipped it in the air, letting it fall into the palm of his right hand before slapping onto the back of his left. "Here, wanna try it?"
Russ was immediately interested, holding out his hand. Dusty made it a fist, sticking his thumb under his index finger and placing the quarter gingerly on the top of his hand. "Now," he said, "jut your thumb up like you're giving me a thumbs-up as fast as you can."
Russ tried to, but his finger stopped midway and the coin slid back over his wrist and down his arm, where Dusty snatched it up before it could fall between the car seats of the van they were sitting in on their way to school. "Try to be a bit faster, then the coin will go straight up."
After three tries, Russ flipped the coin straight up and caught it just as it was falling, grinning to himself that he mastered the nifty trick so quickly.
"You wanna hear a fun fact about coins, Russ?" said Jaywhisker, seizing a wide-open opportunity.
The boy shrugged. "Sure."
He grabbed the coin from the boy's open palm. "So you know how a coin has two sides, right? Well, by the laws of statistics and probability, if you flip a coin one hundred times, theoretically the coin should land on heads fifty times and tails fifty times. No matter how many more you may have of heads than tails, it'll always even out in the end."
Russ raised an eyebrow. "Really? Does that happen every time?"
"Well, not exactly," said Jaywhisker, "Doesn't happen every 100 flips. Hell, it may not happen every 500 flips. But no matter what, there exists a point where you've flipped a coin enough times that you will have seen both sides an equal amount of times. The most expensive sign," Jaywhisker flipped the coin so it landed in Russ's palm, "of perfect balance and equality."
Now Russ was invested in this philosophy that he started flipping the coin over and over, likely making mental notes on how it landed. Jaywhisker leaned back in his seat, flashing a smug, victorious smirk at Dusty, who shrugged and smiled back.
"You're welcome" was all he said.
"Really?" said Jaywhisker, shoving him in his car seat across from Russ, "No 'congratulations?' No 'not bad, Jay?'"
"Let's be honest here. You wouldn't have come up with the coin flipping by yourself even if you tried."
"Oh, so that's how we're gonna play now, eh?" growled Jaywhisker playfully.
"I swear, you're just as much a suck-up as that Foxleap guy! You two should move in together! He calls his coop the Foxcave, and you call yours the...Bluebird's Coop?"
"Nest," corrected Jaywhisker, "'Bluebird's Nest.'"
From the driver's seat, Ashtooth burst into laughter. "That's what you call it? What did you do, put your name through a random name generator for your treehouse?"
Dusty laughed the hardest he had in weeks while Jaywhisker, pointed at him threateningly. "You have no say in this conversation."
"I'm just saying. It's like you're fighting an otherworldly being only to find out your mothers have the same name."
"Okay," said Jaywhisker, throwing his hands up, "I'm getting targeted now. Why am I the only one to like that movie?"
"Cause the DC Universe is trash!" shot back Dusty, smiling wickedly, "Name a good movie they've made since the Wonder Woman movies and the Dark Knight trilogy."
Jaywhisker opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and closed it again. Dusty threw his arms up in victory. "Yes! Marvel reigns supreme!"
"Oh really?" he said, rolling his eyes, "You just like them cause Chris Evans is your celebrity crush."
"So what? Did you see that beard he had in Infinity War? Just that makes me wish he was kicking ass and saving the world."
"Well then, we'd be out of a job, Dusty," said Ashtooth, looking back at him as he pulled into the parking lot of Forrestlake Elementary, "And I can say from experience that it's no fun."
"Really?"
"Story for another day, Dusty," he said, parking the car, "Alright, have a good first day, Russetleap!"
Russ was actively trying to keep track of how many times the coin had landed heads and tails as he got out, grabbed his bag and walked up to the stout two-story white building without a word.
That suddenly quiet vibe carried over the ten-minute drive to the high school, where Ashtooth waved as they walked up to the new building.
"So," said Jaywhisker, "Is the reason you like Chris Evans more is that he's been in the best Marvel movies?"
"Uh…"
"GOOOLD DIGGER!" shouted Jaywhisker in his ear, after which Dusty pushed him away, grinning widely.
"So since you're so persistent on this topic, who's your celebrity crush?"
"Fuck off. See you after school."
Dusty chuckled to himself. It was nice to have a banter like this that didn't involve war.
"This is a horrible idea."
"Well, you're nothing without your guts, aren't you, commander?" said the woman as they walked through a crowded warehouse area, people bustling to do various tasks left and right.
"Do you realize what you're getting into?" responded the man, "You saw how he was today! He summoned armor out of thin air! He's a fucking god!"
"With a flair for the 14th century as well," responded the woman dryly as she led the man to a private room and locked the door behind her.
When the commander had settled in, the woman pulled out a slip of paper with a distorted sine curve printed in worn black toner. "We've found his bargaining chip."
The commander stared at the graph.
This was not a normal graph.
This was a radioactivity tracker.
"A nuclear bomb?"
"Or some sort of dirty bomb," said the woman.
"Cool story, Sky," said the commander, "but what are you going to do with that information?"
"Quite simple, Commander Garrison. We're going to steal it."
"I...ah- WHAT?!" he shouted.
"We have the general location of the bomb. All we need to do is seduce our new friend with some more weapons. You saw how he looked at our original stash."
"Great!" said Garrison, throwing his hands in the air, "Awesome! I love this plan! Except for one thing…Rock is a literal god. You think stealing a bomb would scare him? You've literally gone crazy. We can't do this plan. Too much of our army is at risk."
"It's not about threatening him…"
Sky unlocked the door to show Garrison a U-Haul, with three black-covered men carrying a garbage bag carefully.
The commander's eyes widened when he noticed the eerily human object in the bag.
"It's about threatening his targets."
A smile built at Garrison's mouth.
"You never cease to amaze me, Captain."
"No, I don't. Do me a favor and make sure the guards don't have too much fun with her."
"Oh God."
Garrison followed the men carrying the bag, trying to ignore the very obvious catcalls as they moved her to the holding cells.
They had a way with women he didn't really like anymore.
It was 3:07 AM.
Fir sat in a car, ignition off, lights off as a white sedan pulled up across the street. Crow hopped out the back carrying a plastic bag with the clothes she would need, freshly washed.
"You ready?" he asked.
"No. Help me change," she said, taking off her shirt and turning around.
"Hun, you'll do just fine," he said, undoing her bra and helping adjust the new one, "You're one of the best. They'll have no idea."
"It's just...I'm worried, Crow," said Fir, changing her pants and underwear while Crow looked away modestly, "There's so many things that could go wrong. I could get killed in there and you wouldn't know!"
"That's not gonna happen," he said, holding her light-blue-tipped hair as she put her shirt on, "Listen, if you're worried or are having problems, give me a call. If you can get out of the house, we can just talk. I'm not going anywhere."
After taking a few deep breaths, she looked up at Crow and smiled. "Thank you."
He planted a kiss on her forehead. "I'll always be here for you. Now go."
Fir squeezed her lover's hands a couple moments more before she broke away, crossing the street and heading to the east wall of the mansion. Using a rope that her team had planted in a bush hours ago, she flung the noose up to a corner of the balcony barrier and worked herself up, keeping her eyes and ears open for any intruders.
Five minutes later and she stood on the balcony. She wrapped up the rope, flung it into the property-lining foliage and pulled a paper clip out from her back pocket as she snuck to the sliding glass door. After another three minutes of jiggling, the paper clip slid in, allowing her to turn it and unlock the door.
She snuck through the quiet house, past the huge kitchen and living room and up a flight of stairs to her bedroom, which was thankfully unlocked.
She spared one last look outside, making sure she wasn't being watched, before flopping down on her new bed, letting out a huge sigh.
This was her home now. Replacement Procedure had gone perfectly so far.
And if she made the right steps, no one in the house would even know it.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS STORY IS OFFICIALLY IN CONJUNCTION WITH "WARRIORS: THE NEW ERA."
Well, not exactly. But if you read the most recent chapter, you know that Sky made an alliance with Rock. Now we go into a series of mindgames about how one side's gonna try and outsmart the other.
Just like old times.
This was mainly an ARS-focused chapter, but next chapter is all Dusty. He meets a couple people of note, and one of them may be a bit more special than the others...You'll see.
Also, don't be alarmed if you start seeing trigger warnings. That means everything is going according to plan...
Best,
~Res